School is back, but that didn't mean the Lanier Poets couldn't leave the classroom for one last summer adventure on the high seas – or rather the Alabama River.

The Lanier Row It Poets and Sidney Lanier High School faculty and staff represented the first tradition Montgomery Public School to compete in the Riverfront Park's recent Dragon Boat Race and Festival.

Several other students — young and old — joined in the fun. Seventeen-year-old Omega Borom is a senior at Lanier and rowed with her boyfriend, who is also a student there. They paddled alongside alumnus, Jim Hodgson, who graduated from Lanier in 1965.

For a while, Lanier seemed to be floundering. Each year for a decade, a different principal came into the school, and each year they left. The school was lacking stability. Williams, now in his third year as principal at Lanier, is turning the school around and Hodgson cannot be more pleased.

"Antonio Williams is the spark plug behind the rejuvenation of Lanier," Hodgson said. "When he asked me to row, I got excited to come back here and help Lanier. I jumped 'whole hog' into it."

Williams organized the school to have a Dragon Boat team not just to win, but to cultivate "teamwork and camaraderie." After coming in third place to LAMP's Golden Rowing Tigers in the first race of the day, they fought to come back and win their third and final race.

"We want everyone to enjoy themselves, but we really wanted to maximize our team atmosphere at Lanier," Williams said. "I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring kids together and parents and just the whole Lanier community," Williams said.